


and your kisses like the best wine that goes down smoothly, gliding over lips and teeth

by procellous



Series: as an apple tree among the trees of the wood | shiro/matt week [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 04:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8149919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procellous/pseuds/procellous
Summary: A kiss





	

The stars were bright out here, without an atmosphere to distort them. There was nothing separating him from them but the window, clearer than anything they could have made on Earth, and the galra never cared about the stars.

Nobody came out to this one little room in the Castle, just him. It was nearly all transparent, so he could sit up here and feel like he was floating through space alone, untethered and unfettered. Like this, the worries that plagued him faded. Nothing mattered here. Nothing existed. There was nothing but Matt and the distant stars around him, comforting cold light.

The illusion was broken by soft foot-falls.

“Matt?” Shiro said, “Can we talk for a minute?”

Great. It was the one person he wanted to see the least. “Sure, Shiro, what’s up?”

Shiro sat down next to him. “I’m sorry if this is an awkward question, but…in the gladiator arena, after I won the first match,” The _when I hurt you_ went unspoken. “Did—Were you—I remember the guards saying something about the druids?”

Matt stiffened. How could he tell Shiro the truth? But how could he lie to Shiro? He was finally remembering, finally piecing memories back together. Just because what he was remembering was the very thing Matt didn’t want to remember…that didn’t mean that Matt could try to escape it.

“Yes. I was.”

He wanted to cry.

“Matt?” Shiro asked, “Is—is something wrong?”

He was crying, he realized with a touch of hysteria, hot tears running down his cheeks and dripping down his lips. “I just…I don’t like remembering it. What happened there.”

“Oh, Matt, please don’t cry. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. You know I can’t take it when you cry.” Matt couldn’t help but remember when Shiro would kiss away his tears, could almost feel the ghostly touches. “No wonder you don’t want anything to do with me, I should have been there.”

“It wasn’t your fault what the druids did to me,” Matt said. “You saved my life back there. And what do you mean, ‘don’t want anything to do with you?’ Shiro, I—” The words caught in his throat. _I love you._

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Shiro said. Matt tried not to flinch at the hurt in his voice. “You used to call me Takashi.” Matt did flinch at the raw hurt in those words. Another wave of tears hit him. He curled into himself a little.

“I thought—” he hiccuped and scrubbed at his eyes. “I thought you didn’t remember me. Didn’t remember us. I didn’t want to push you. Your memories—”

Takashi’s expression softened. He sat next to Matt with a sigh. “They’re still jumbled, but only my memories of being a prisoner. I still remember Earth, and I could never forget you.” He wiped away some of Matt's tears, and Matt nearly sobbed at the gentle touch. They hadn't touched each other in well over a year—it felt like forever. Takashi's flesh hand cupped Matt's face, his thumb resting on Matt's lips. Matt wanted nothing more than to lean in, to close the distance and kiss him, but something stopped him. Here was Takashi, safe and remembering him, holding him like something fragile and precious. Here was everything he had wanted and waited, for what turned out to be two years. All he had to do was lean in. Their faces were inches apart. It would be so easy. It would be so easy to close the distance, it would be so easy to give in, it would be so easy to reach out and pull Takashi down with him.

“Matt.” Takashi breathed his name like a prayer.

“Takashi…”

His eyes hadn’t changed. The same shape and color, the same way they softened when Takashi looked at him. How had he missed it for so long? How had he spent months alongside him and not noticed that the way he looked at him was the same it had always been?

Time seemed to stop as Matt leaned in. Their faces were impossibly close, their breath intermingling. Everything else seemed to fade away. Zarkon could attack and Matt wouldn’t notice. All that remained was him and Takashi and the shrinking distance between them.

They shouldn’t be doing this at all. The last thing any of them needed was a distraction from their mission of stopping Zarkon. He pulled away. He couldn’t trust himself not to kiss Takashi, not when they were so close together.

“We shouldn’t…” he whispered. “We can’t get distracted.”

“Don’t,” Takashi said, voice close to breaking. “Don’t ask me to do that. I’m not strong enough to let you go again. I just found out that you still feel the same, don’t ask me to pretend there’s nothing between us.” He stroked Matt’s cheek. Matt couldn’t help leaning into it. Takashi’s other arm wrapped around his waist, not pulling, just holding him. His fingers were splayed out on the small of Matt’s back and he could feel the warm metal through his shirt. Takashi’s heartbeat beat slow and steady and sure under his hands. “May I?”

Matt could feel his thumb on the corner of his lips, warm and soft and gentle and real. “Kiss me,” he said, tongue flicking out to wet his lower lip, “Please.”

The gentle pressure of Takashi’s thumb lessened, and for a heartbeat Matt was afraid that he had scared him off, that he had asked for too much too soon, and then his lips replaced his thumb and Matt couldn’t think of much of anything. His body seemed frozen in place. Takashi’s kiss was better than he remembered. The first kiss was gentle and chaste, nearly hesitant. Their lips slid against each other’s, a moment of contact before it faded. It was barely a kiss and yet Matt’s heart was beating rabbit-fast.

“Are you—” Takashi started to say, brows drawn together in worry. Matt surged forward, pressing their lips together. His arms wrapped around Takashi’s neck, pulling him in close. Takashi’s lips were soft and sweet. Matt opened his lips a little, letting his tongue push gently against Takashi’s closed lips. Takashi opened up underneath him, like the shore for the tides. One hand found its way into Matt’s hair, fingers curling in the longer strands.

It had been two long, touch-starved years without Takashi, and now he was here, warm and solid and real.

The stars turned around them, and they fell into each other once more.


End file.
